Chino Got Baptized!!!!

Well... at the start of this week we had some goodbyes to do because Sis. Millet was leaving. And then we traveled down to Little Rock Wednesday to pick up my new companion. Her name is Sis. Stevens and she is very nice. Her spanish is super good and I know I will learn a lot from her. She goes home in January. She has never been in an English and Spanish area so it has been a bit of an adjustment but it is going good. And guess who is serving in the same area again??? Thats right. My cousin E. Ludwig!!!!!!!! His area in Danville closed so now he is in a trio with the spanish elders here E. Salazar and Shoenfeld. Crazy huh? I am just going to serve next to him my whole mission. There have only been 2 transfers where he has been a different area and I only have 3 more. So thats pretty crazy! Fun to have him here though and introduce him to everyone as my cousin (yes distantly related but still pretty cool ;)) And sis. Millet is serving with Sis. Peterson. So fun :) 

We have been working hard and trying to find someone that is ready to be baptized in November so we can make our goal of 100 as a mission. I know that if we work hard, are dilligent and obedient and trust in the Lord, he will put someone in our path that we can teach and prepare to be baptized. I really love being a missionary and teaching them about the restored gospel and eternal families. It is so exciting :) Even though at times it is difficult, if we just keep trusting and working hard, the Lord will help us find someone. 

But the most exciting part about this week is that Chino got baptized! I really am still a bit in shock that it went through this time. He has been through a few sets of missionaries now but I guess now it was just his time. The Barreras helped us a lot in helping prepare him to be baptized. They were there at every lesson with us and I know that that made the difference. I just am so glad that I was listening to the Spirit when the Lord told me to turn around and go see Chino when we passed him outside. God really does answer prayers and when we are listening he will guide us to where we need to go. But we cant be afraid to act on those promptings he gives us. We just have to act on them even when we might not know what to say. The words will come if we are doing what we need to be doing :)  

Well we are going on walk week this week. My companion had an accident awhile ago and she cant ride her bike until the end of November. So this will be a new and exciting adventure :) I am excited for this transfer and for the things that I am going to learn and for the ways I am going to grow. Thats what the gospel is all about, learning and growing :) We are ending all 4 Pdays at 2 in November to sacrifice something good for something better; to reach our goal as a mission. November here we come!!!!!! 

Yesterday the water pipe broke so we had no water at the church which means no working toilets. So we only had sacrament meeting in English and Spanish. It was sad :( But something that is super cool is that I have been praying to work better with the members and have been praying for them to have missionary opportunities. Well guess what???? There were 3 members that came up to me and said that they all had an opportunity to share the gospel with someone! Isnt that so exciting?????????? God really does answer prayers I promise :) Even though it might take awhile, in his timing, he will answer our prayers! 

Well I love yall and hope that you all can find ways to share the gospel and be examples to those around you. I promise you will be blessed for it :) Keep staying strong. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!! 

Hermana Goudie

Love this family! :) I really hope that my children will love reading the Book of Mormon and saying prayers as much as this family does.

One of the best areas!

Chino got baptized!!! And his mom came too! :)

THANK YOU!!!

It's a short one this week...

Sorry I am out of time today. Dont kill me :( But I just wanted to tell yall that I had an amazing birthday and an awesome week. Thank you all for the birthday wishes and gifts :) I promise I will write more next week. My companion Sis. Millet is getting transferred this week :( I will miss her. I think Sis. Stevens is coming here. Chino is planning on getting baptized on Saturday and all the Pdays in November we are going to be ending at 2 so that we can make our goal of 100 baptisms. We are learning the law of sacrifice thats for sure. 

Love yall! Thank you :)

Got to see these lovely ladies at specialized on my birthday! :) I love them!

So exciting I got to see the Fosters on my Birthday!!! Leneyah (her new baby) is stinkin cute!

Thanks yall for the lovely presents and such a great day! :)

The members here treated me very well. I am so lucky to be here. They make
me feel so loved! :) Even when they sing Las Mananitas and shove my face in the
cake afterwards. ;)

The members after Noche De Deportes

Just some more celebrating. Don't worry... we did still do lots of missionary work his week!

Love this girl!

And the amazing Leal family.

We hiked Petit Jean today. It was super fun and the leaves were beautiful. :)

Sometimes my cousin and I are a bit odd. ;)

The group at Petit Jean

Look at the pretty leaves!

One Year Mark and Birthday!

Hola familia :)

So this week was super exciting. We started off the week in Morrilton about 30 minutes away from Russellville finding and teaching a lot of cool people! We didnt have a car (we had just dropped it off to the Conway sisters, thats right, bike week again!) or place to go so we were just walking and getting rides from the senior couple and stls and we had a ton of success! We were able to teach 9 lessons during the day and something that was super cool is that with each person that we talked to (all of them besides 1 was hispanic) we shared different scriptures with each person. That is something that I have not always been good at on my mission but I have learned to listen to the Spirit to be lead to the scripture that that person needs to hear. It was really cool being able to overcome peoples concerns and help the understand what the restoration means by sharing scriptures. The scriptures have all the answers and brings the spirit so much! 

This week at zone conference on my one year mark there was a surprise. We got to watch meet the mormons!!!!!!!!!!!! It was super exciting :) We just watched it at the church in Conway with all the missionaries in our zone. It was really good and I loved hearing of all these cool members of the church and how they live the gospel and how it has changed and shaped their life. The gospel is true! 

Like I said we were on bikes this week and it was a bit rainy but we had a lot of members help us which I am so grateful for :) This week I was also able to help some hermanas in the branch prepare for a song they were going to sing in sacrament. It was so fun and made me miss teaching voice lessons. They did an awesome job yesterday :) I am so grateful that I am able to use my piano skills here to help support the branch. They really love singing. Its such a perfect place for me to be :) 

Chino came to church yesterday! All of the members just came up and started talking to him and asking when he was going to get baptized and they are very supportive. There was a member that said that he went over saturday night and Chino said that he is really ready to get baptized this time and that hermano barrera played a big role in it. You guys! The members! They make all the difference. I am telling you that is when we have the most success here as missionaries. When the members are involved. Especially when they speak fluent spanish ;)

So another scary thing happened this week. I hit my year mark. I really cannot believe it. Sometimes I think of things before the mission and it just seems like forever ago. Like mission life is all I know. But at the same times it seems like just yesterday that I left. I think back to the person I was before and the things I used to do and realize that I have changed a lot and my testimony is a lot stronger. I have learned so much and I have really enjoyed being a missionary this past year. There really is nothing more exciting than sharing the great news of the restoration :) Its such an awesome time that I have to wear this name tag and knock doors and say that I am a representative of Jesus Christ. I love helping and serving others and giving myself to the Lord so that he can bless the lives of others. Now dont get me wrong there have been many hard times in my mission. But when I keep focusing on the Savior, I can get through those hard times and overcome them. It is those hard times in life when we grow the most and really understand what the Atonement of Jesus Christ means to us and how we can use it to be happy and change. And through our trials I find that is when I am closest to the Lord. I love seeing the blessings that have come from being on my mission too. I got to see Hna. Hernandez last night as she was on her way back home from oklahoma city. Oscar was with her too and it was so good to see him :) She told me. "you go home soon" and I got a little emotional because I thought of all the cool people I have met and all the spiritual experiences I have had and all the blessings that have come into my life while I have been out here. I am so grateful for the time I have had to be here and for the things I am learning and for how I am changing. And also for all of your support and prayers. I love yall :) Les quiero! 

P.S. hopefully in these last 6 months I will be able to learn more spanish too ;) because still dont know that much... but I can speak and understand. so that is a blessing :)

I LOVED MY PACKAGES!!!

At Dardenelle State Park for family home evening!

The Beautiful Sunset!!!!

Practicing for the song with the Hermanas.

We had a fruit this week.... TUNA!! Not it's not fish, and it's delicious.

I love this little boy. Cocooooo!! That's what his dad calls him.

Saying goodbye to Veronicas parents. They are headed back to Mexica after 4 months. So sad. :(

This was such a fun little bike thing! Just a little bit hard to ride in a skirt! ;)

Look who I got to visit with last night. I love them. :)

Conference!!!!!

Well, I hope yall watched and enjoyed conference! I loved it so much! Conference is so exciting!!!!! That is something I have really realized being out here on the mission is that conference is such an exciting time of the year. We can receive the guidance and direction that we need. Something I love doing is writing down questions before conference starts and I always get the answers to them. It is super cool. I love feeling the Spirit when our prophet stands up and speaks and when his apostles speak just testifying to me that this is Christs restored church on the Earth today. I cant remember who said it but there was one quote that I really liked. "When making decisions today, you must look to the future" or something like that. It just helped remind me that I need to keep an eternal perspective. I also was reminded that we are here to be tried and tested. This life is not supposed to be easy, because if it were, we would never grow. We are required to walk by faith and trust in the Lord to lead us out of difficult situations and as we do so we will find happiness and joy and be on the path to eternal life. I love conference! 

Another super cool experience this week. So we were going to go and visit Earl, our recent convert, and on our way there we passed by a former investigator, Chino. He was outside and I saw him and said, "Chinos outside." We got to Earls and then I was like, hey we need to go visit him. So then I turned the car around and went and talked to Chino and Hno. Barrera was outside with him and they were working on a fence. Hno. Barrera just told him straighup that he needs to get baptized and we asked what his concerns were and thanks to the help of the scriptures and the Spirit and Hno. Barrera we were able to overcome his concerns and he accepted an invitation to baptism and we set a date! It was super exciting and he really had changed from the past times I have been to teach him. He is ready this time.

Friday night Hna. and Hno. Barrera asked us to go over with them Saturday morning to help clean their house so that him and his mom who is a member but hasnt been to church in years would come to conference. So we went and guess who came to conference?????? His mom and chino!!!!! It was so exciting! It is so neat to see how much of a difference the members can help the work and when we work together there are miracles. Chino came to the Saturdaymorning session too. I am so excited to help him gain his own testimony of the restored gospel and of the Book of Mormon. 

And speaking of the Book of Mormon, I am still doing good on my 30 day challenge! The Book of Mormon is so cool! It is so neat to see how the Book of Mormon really is the keystone of our religion. I know it is true and I know that it helps us understand the gospel of Jesus Christ more fully. It brings so much hope and guidance into my life. 

Well I love yall! 

Hermana Goudie

Our Lovely District!! Last District meeting with the Hansens. :(

Yeah I know it has already been a year but I thought this sign was funny.
At a baptist church.

Our investigator Mary that just dropped us, due to a lack of a testimony of Joseph Smith :(
Took us out to her property. She is hilarious.

Got to hold this cool little lizard this week! When we were camping out at a
less actives house during a tornado warning.

Just messing around at Walmart today. Got to include the Jicima!